Insight Partners’ Deven Parekh on why the firm is diversifying while everyone else bets the farm on OpenAI and Anthropic
- ID
- 24040
- Status
- summarized
- Published
- 14 Sep 2026, 5:30 AM
- Fetched
- 14 Sep 2026, 7:39 AM
- Provider
- TechCrunch
- Category
- technology
- Original URL
- https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/13/insight-partners-devin-parekh-on-why-the-firm-is-diversifying-while-everyone-else-bets-the-farm-on-openai-and-anthropic/
- Source URL
- https://techcrunch.com/feed/
Summary
- Score
- 5.5
- Created
- 14 Sep 2026, 7:40 AM
- Tags
- Audience
- saas_foundersai_ml_learners
What happened
Insight Partners' Devin Parekh, co-running the firm for 26 years, explains why Insight maintains a diversified portfolio strategy while other VCs concentrate bets on frontier AI labs like OpenAI and Anthropic. The firm has $90B AUM, owns stakes in OpenAI and Anthropic, and led rounds in Databricks, but Parekh is candid about deals they've lost (e.g., legal-tech startup Legora) and conflicts of interest in venture investing.
Why it matters
For founders raising capital, Parekh's stance signals that not every major VC is exclusively chasing foundation-model plays — diversified funds may still back applied AI, vertical SaaS, and infrastructure plays. If you're building outside the frontier-lab layer, Insight-style firms remain a viable funding path rather than competing in the OpenAI/Anthropic arms race.
Discussion angle
What does a diversified VC strategy mean for Southeast Asian founders — does the concentration on frontier labs by most VCs create a funding gap that diversified firms like Insight are better positioned to fill for applied AI and vertical SaaS?